Waterloo officer shot in face back on duty

November 9, 2012

WATERLOO, Ind. (AP) — A police officer from a small northeastern Indiana town who was shot in the face 11 months ago while responding to a call is back at work.
The Auburn Star reported that 48-year-old Waterloo Deputy Marshal Steve Brady returned to work this week.
He was shot on Dec. 15 by a man fatally shot by police about three hours later after pointing a gun at officers.
Brady, 47, was shot just below the left eye socket and the bullet exited behind his right ear. He says he struggled at times with his equilibrium, hearing and vision and wondered at times if he’d ever be able to return to police work.
He spent two weeks in the hospital.
Brady, a 13-year veteran of the Waterloo department, says he missed his job and he’s happy to be back at work.
Ralph Hardiek, 41, of Auburn, shot Bradyon December 15, 2011 after Brady responded to a call about a couple whose car was in a ditch.
Police said Julie King, 33, and Hardiek, went to a home on County Road 35 just north of Waterloo to get help for a vehicle they said had been stuck. Brady found the two in the area of Railroad and Center Streets in Waterloo. Police said that's when Hardiek shot Brady in the face.
Hardiek was shot to death about three hours later, and King was critically injured by officers as the pair hid beneath the deck of a home about two blocks from where Brady was shot.